A couple of
days ago I was asked to review a very impressive resume for an open position in LSS that called my attention. In the very sentence of the self-description
section of the resume, the candidate described himself as “result-oriented” person. Is result-oriented
a virtue? What about “process-oriented”? How does a result-oriented or
process-oriented person fit within a lean six sigma transformation?
Results counts and at the end, they are the
only thing that counts. For instance, most of us are in business corporations,
and businesses are here to make money. And we make money when we get good
results: good products, at the lowest cost and when the customers need them. However,
the difference here is about how we get to these expected results. In
other words, what processes do we use to get results?
Results are the outcome of a process. In lean six sigma,
we aim to get good results from a controlled process, because they will
be repeatable. That is why the Toyota Production System (TPS) is “process-focus” not
result-focus. On the other hand, a result-focus approach or person might not
care how the results are achieved as long they are achieved. We can get good
results from uncontrolled process if we work harder (e.g. more hours working, more
pressure to our teams, more resources for inspections, check and others) and
have some luck, but the truth is that this is not a sustainable option. In
fact, I had my fare share of firefighting corporate battles in which I was routed
to sites that were a “disaster” in order to fix problems. Bad results from uncontrolled process simply mean
that we are not doing our jobs and, paraphrasing Albert Einstein, ‘insanity' is to expect
different results from doing the same thing over again.“Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.”
― Albert Einstein
